We are back in our favourite city in the world! New York City ….

It feels like we were only here yesterday, which is close – last October.

I love this city … the sounds … the smells … the feeling.

I love the sound of city traffic and people rushing about. I love the smells of pretzels and hotdogs being cooked in carts on the sidewalks. I love the feeling of being such a small person in such a large city. One of millions where no one really cares who you are, what you wear or how you act. A city where everyone is accepted.

We have now been here so many times it feels like home, we know our way around and we know most of the New York-isims.

Tomorrow is our last day here and then we are on to San Francisco.

Missing NYC already and we haven’t even left yet.

It’s icy cold and sends chills as I hold on to it tight. I open it and the beast hisses from inside. It instantly starts to bubble begging for release. I move it’s new chamber closer and pour the beast into it. Black and bubbling it foams from the mouth, brown dirty bubbles spill from the opening as the black liquid sinks deep inside it’s new chamber. It bubbles and gurgles and finally settles until it’s just simmering …. I take a sip …. ahhh luscious ice cold coca cola ….. my demon…. my beast …. my addiction.

I have absolutely nothing to blog about! Ok so I do, but nothing that warrants a blog post on it’s own. I have been starring at this computer screen for 20 minutes wondering what to blog about …. still I have no idea! LOL so here goes, this is going to be a random blog post!

We have all been sick in our house for the past week. Not much fun especially since I have missed the last 2 flu’s to hit our house. This time I wasn’t so lucky. I was the first one to feel sick and the last one to get better! The part I hate about being sick is I am never sick on my own I always get sick when Marc and Cooper are sick so I end up taking care of both of them and then there is no one left to take care of me! So next time I have decided I want to be sick on my own, so I can sleep all day and have someone else clean the house and cook dinner …. but I am sure it still won’t happen like that :p

Enough of the crappy stuff!

On a brighter note I have been organising our house! I am going to do a massive blog post really soon about it but it’s been consuming my life for the past month so I thought I would share a little.

We went to Ikea a few weeks back and bought Expedits (cube bookcases). I am in love with them! We have one in the lounge room to store all of Cooper’s toys, one in the living room to store bits and pieces and two in my craft room to store all of my craft, business and Cooper’s art supplies. I have never been so organised!

On top of that I have cleaned my fridge and pantry and found the perfect baskets and trays, now they look like something out of a catalogue! I just love opening my fridge door every morning and seeing how clean and tidy it is!

We also had our new bedroom furniture delivered yesterday. It is the first time I have bought bedroom furniture since I was 17! I still use the same tallboy, so it was a long time coming.

I am going to take photos this week of everything so you can see what I have been up to!

Sorry for the boring random post, but that is my life …. boring and random! LOL

Jen xx

I have decided to work more on being better on the inside and out. I want to work on being healthier and even more environmental. I feel I have slipped a little and need to tighten up all of the strings.

The biggest area I want to start is to stop eating and drinking unnatural things. I work so hard to make sure Cooper eats healthy organic food and I tend to disregard myself. I need to stop eating and drinking things that are not good for me, things with preservatives and chemicals. I want to start eating more natural rather than just cutting out fats. Stop eating refined sugar, processed foods etc.

I also want to start being more environmental. We are pretty good now but there are things I want to do – compost more, use less plastic, convert all of our foods to organic etc. There is always room for improvement!

I need to start taking better care of myself on the inside. I am very low in iron and so unhealthy. I need to focus on making my body function properly and feeling 100%. I can’t remember the last time I really felt healthy …. it’s been years. So here are my…..

Health Goals!

* Take my vitamins everyday – Iron, vitamin B, probiotic
* Eat only natural foods – organic
* No refined sugars or processed foods
* Exercise – Daily walks

Environmental Goals!

* Use less plastic – no plastic shopping bags, buy pasta in cardboard boxes etc.
* Use the dryer less
* Work harder to recycle more
* Eat naturally – organic, local etc.

I need to get back in shape on the inside and I am hoping that reflects on the outside! So tomorrow is the day …. cold turkey!

I am in major organsing mode! A few weeks ago we went and bought some bookshelves from Ikea and a few other bits and pieces. So we have been slowly organising the house.

Marc has been away for a week so I have taken advantage of it and got stuck into organising the house some more! I did our bedroom, ensuite. Cooper’s room, lounge/play room and finished my office/scrap room. The house is looking awesome and I am so proud of myself!

Next up  ….. the pantry, laundry, linen cupboard, spare room, Marc’s office and finally the garage!

Over the next few days I will share some pictures!

I love shopping, it’s no secret and I love shopping for things I don’t have to try on and therefore don’t get depressed over!

My shopping drug of choice used to be stationary and books, but I now have almost everything Kikki-K sell and I have a Kindle to download books so I have had to find something else to satisfy! I have now found a love for homewares!

I was never really interested in homewares before, as we rent and I never felt the need to decorate. But now I am starting to love it!

A couple of months ago I bought a friend a birthday present and at the same time I put the same on layby for myself. Today I went in to pick it up and it was on sale – 50% off so I was bold enough to ask if they could apply it to my layby and they did! So I got a nice discount and grabbed a few more things as well and still walked out spending over $90 less than I was going to!

I bought a dessert platter, a normal platter, salad bowl, salad servers, ice cream bowls, little platters I am going to use for dessert plates, wine glasses, a butter keeper and some cute breakfast bowls!

Over the next week I will share my latest organising adventures with you! I am sure we now own a whole Ikea store the house is slowly looking more organised and feels fabulous to live in! After 4 years it feels like a home …. remind me why we want to move at the end of the year? LOL

Jen xx

I always get asked why we eat mostly organic and why Cooper eats pretty much only organic. The most common questions I get are … “Is it expensive?”, “Does it really taste that good?”, “Does it really matter?”, “Isn’t organic just the latest buzz word and a lot of hype over nothing?” and “Isn’t it hard to find organic food for kids without them missing out?”.

I guess before I answer those questions I will tell you why eating organic and mostly feeding Cooper organic is so important to me.

When I was pregnant I became aware of everything I put in my mouth. I was s conscious of what I ate because I knew what I ate also fed my baby too. I avoided caffeine, sugar and fats. I allowed myself 1 coca cola and one chocolate bar a week and most of the time I skipped the chocolate. Carrying my most precious baby inside of me made me less selfish, it wasn’t about me it was about the baby boy growing inside of me and I wanted him to have the best start in life.

When he was born I started looking into organic produce, I found an organic farmers market here on the Gold Coast and we started eating organic vegetables and some fruit to start with. The more research I did on the effect of pesticides, hormones etc on humans especially on growing children was scary! When Cooper started solids I only cooked him organic vegetables and slowly started to change our meat to organic.

In the past 12 months I have found so many organic resources – farmers market, butcher and grocery store. These places allow me to purchase almost everything organic. Also the supermarket has a great Organic brand called Only Organic for some convenience foods for Cooper.

While I try my best to feed Cooper organic most of the time it really is not always possible. I take organic snacks out with us – sultanas, rice cakes, sandwiches etc. But sometimes we still buy lunch or snacks out or if we are at a friends house he will eat non-organic food. I try not to get to hung up on it, sometimes it’s unavoidable!

The simple truth is we eat organic because it is food in it’s most natural form, no chemicals and not modifications. Pure and natural, the way it’s meant to be!

Now to answer those questions, most I have answered in my ramble but I will still answer them.

“Is it expensive?”

This is probably the most common question. In short …. yes it is expensive. It costs more because organic food is not readily available everywhere. I have to go to specialty shops or butchers that order in smaller quantities so therefore don’t get the same mass discounts as larger supermarkets would. On an average week this is the breakdown of what we spend …

Farmers Market – $85
Butcher – $80
Groceries – $60

This does not include any cleaning or personal products and is limited to our organic food only.

So as you can see it is expensive. But to us it is worth it and I really could cut the cost down as we do find we have some wastage.

“Does it really taste that good?”

In all honesty taste is on the bottom of my list of importance. Our choice is for health, followed by the environment and then taste. But yes it does taste different! Organic food has a fuller flavour – The biggest taste changes we have noticed have been – beef mince, strawberries, tomatoes and broccoli …. go organic with these and you will taste a huge difference! Once you taste organic you wont go back. Smelling an apple that smells like an apple and is so pungent the fragrance fills the car! It’s amazing how much pesticides and even the wax they put on apples makes a difference to taste and smell.

“Does it really matter?”

Yes! Yes! Yes! To me it does matter. The chemicals used in food production will astound you and they have been linked to some of our most common illnesses – cancer, Alzheimer, child behavour problems, autism etc. Chemicals are man made poisons used to kill living organisms that can destroy crops …. we too are a living organism! These chemicals are used to increase profits, they are not used to protect us. Any reduction in the amount of chemicals you ingest and especially your children matters.

“Isn’t organic just the latest buzz word and a lot of hype over nothing?”

Organic isn’t a buzz word and is a fancy name for “natural”. We always here phrases such as “they don’t make it like they used to” … well organic food is how our ancestors used to live! They had no pesticides or antibiotics, everything was naturally grown and produced. Organic farming is an old farming method that was over taken when large companies needed bigger profits. Organic is the way of the past and now the way of the future and the more we learn about the effects of chemicals on our health the more we realise organic is the only way to live.

“Isn’t it hard to find organic food for kids without them missing out?”

It is difficult sometimes, but no hard. I try my best to provide Cooper with  organic food and almost everything has an organic option. He eats lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, sultanas, dried fruits, crackers etc. All I can find at the organic grocery store. He still loves his cheesymite bread sticks that are not organic so until I find out how to make them myself I still buy them. When we go out I try not to worry about finding organic food, 9/10 I wont be able to so I make a healthy choice for him rather than an organic choice. The more educated you are on organic food the easier it is!

So there you have it! I am a huge advocate for eating organic and most of all feeding your children organic. It’s not hard and costs can be kept down with lots of meal planning.

Jen xx

This was going to be a review about Sex and The City 2, but that will have to come later. This goes beyond a review of the movie and has made me review my life.

I am warning you, please do not read any further if you have not seen the movie.

Today I went to Sex and The City 2, I have been so excited about this movie. I loved the series, loved the first movie and just could not wait for the second. I love Sex and The City for many reasons. I have a love affair with New York. I feel like that is the city my soul was born in. Returning to NYC feels like coming home. So the second movie was going to take me back to that beautiful city I love and reconnect me with 4 women I grew up with and came to love.

The movie was hilariously funny and surprising ….

I have never really been a fan of Carrie, I have always found her character to be very selfish and toxic and this movie reinforced my opinion. But I love the other girls, I have always identified most with Miranda and Charlotte. Miranda because she is so driven, she doesn’t hide the fact that she loves her job and I love that about her. Charlotte is the perfect women, kind, sweet and sexy and oozing with class. She is the perfect New York socialite hiding deep inside of me. The women I would love to be with a bit of Miranda splashed in.

The movie for me was very emotional and I had to force myself to disguise my tears for laughter, because it was so overwhelming (sorry Bec). I was sitting there and watching the ever so perfect Charlotte who in the eyes of the world is the perfect women and mother, breakdown in a pantry cupboard because her children were so overwhelming and she wasn’t coping. Here is a women who has a full time nanny and a loving husband and she has spent so long pretending to be this perfect mother because she thought that is what she had to be. She is a women of privilege and felt it wasn’t fair for her to feel overwhelmed when so many other women out there do it alone.

Later in the movie we saw Miranda’s admission. A strong independent women who had just quit her job to stay at home for a while, admitted she needed her job and enjoyed being a mother but needed more in life.

This hit home to me in a big wave. I instantly burst into tears and honestly if it wasn’t such a great movie I would have had to leave.

In New York last year I had a bit of a breakthrough, something I still haven’t really dealt with but I made myself aware and shared my thoughts and feeling with Marc.

I love being a mother, Cooper is the light of my life and the reason I do anything! ….. but I need more.I realised that being a stay at home Mum was not for me, while I never wanted to work full time I still needed to have something for myself. Something that I could create and build outside of my relationship and being a Mum.

I really thought I wasn’t maternal and there was something wrong with me for not wanting to be a stay at home Mum. I always thought I was being selfish or doing something wrong. Here I am with a husband who earns great money that allows me to not only stay at home but also to live a fabulous lifestyle and I want to work and be my own person. So many women would kill to be able to stay at home and I always felt like I was being ridiculous for not working, that I should love staying at home and being a Mum.

But in all honesty for me being a full time Mum is overwhelming and sometimes like Charlotte I close my bedroom door and cry. It doesn’t happen all of the time but at times I feel like I lose myself and have to pick up the pieces again and this is where I have been again for the past few months.

This movie today reinforced my feelings I had in New York 6 months ago. They made me bring all of those feelings to the surface again and realise I am not a bad person for wanting more, I am not a bad person for not wanting to be a stay at home mother. It’s just not who I am. It doesn’t mean I don’t love Cooper, because I love him more than anything in this world.

I think it’s a combination of pressure from society and mostly pressure on ourselves. When I grew up my mother worked, however she only worked because she needed the money. If my parents didn’t need the money I am sure my mother would have stayed at home and loved it. So we are always taught that women with children work for money and if they don’t need it then they should be at home with the children …. women who want to work and want to achieve something and are not content with just being a stay at home Mum are never talked about. I have never heard anyone talk about it so I assumed that I was wrong in what I thought and felt. I felt I was doing a disservice to my Son because I can’t spend every single day at home being a Mum, that I need to work and need to have something outside of my family life.

Today I realised …. I am not alone. If they can portray that storyline in a movie there must be other women out there.

Being a mother is hard. Some women take to it like a duck to water and others struggle everyday. I struggle daily. I love being a Mummy, I love my son more than anything in this world but I also love Tuesdays and Thursdays. These are the days he goes to kindy. He has 2 days to play with other children and have fun and I have 2 days to be me … just me. I have always felt guilty for this and have had many comments from other women about the fact that I don’t have to work and I am home so why would I put my son in kindy for 2 days a week?

We are so hard on ourselves trying to live up to what we think society expects of us. The truth is we can be whatever we want to be and the only person looking down on us is ourselves.

Jen xx

I realised today … I am a plain Jane!

Everything I eat I like it plain! LOL … I love plain buttered toast or crumpets, plain salted chips and I don’t like sauce on anything.

just a random fact that you probably don’t know about me and something I only pieced together today after 28 years! LOL
Jen xx

Sometimes we all need to stop and reboot!

I have been wandering a little aimlessly for a few weeks, I have had design changes that needed to be made after the end of my business partnership. So I have been focusing on those changes and haven’t taken the time to re-evaluate my plans.

I have goals, dreams and desires. For the most part they remain the same but I have kind of hit a roundabout …. going round and round not knowing which exit to take.

So this weekend I plan to find some direction and make a start on moving towards my dreams …. again.

I have realised life is not like building a house with one set of plans that are set in stone. Life and especially business is about being able to stop, reboot and start again. Constantly adjusting the plans while still keeping your goals in sight.

So stay tuned! By Monday I am hoping to have my life back on track!

Jen xx